What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

Added:18. Notes that DiscoverEU, which was initiated by Parliament, has become a well-established, popular and easy-to-access informal learning activity which brings young people, including those with fewer opportunities, closer to the EU, encouraging their future involvement in other EU projects;

Added:19. Highlights that centralised actions in sport managed by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) proved useful to promote the European dimension in sport; recognises that the introduction of mobility in 2023 as a decentralised action boosts the exchange of sports staff and coaches;

Removed:21. Regrets the length of time required to apply for Erasmus+ funding and that applicants often cannot apply without external support; requests that proportionate registration and application processes be devised, both in terms of the length of documents and the comprehensibility of the language used therein;

Added:28. Acknowledges that the process of NAs drawing up national plans for inclusion and diversity has been difficult;

Added:33. Considers that the recognition of VET as a path of equal value to academic studies is overdue; moreover, is worried by the remaining obstacles to seamless VET mobility, such as policies fragmented between national and EU level;

Added:34. Regrets the insufficient funding for Centres of Vocational Excellence in view of the demand for them;

Added:39. Notes that the Erasmus+ sport sector has very limited funds in some areas, particularly for the organisation of events, thus limiting its scope;

Added:40. Deeply regrets the slow and incomplete development of the IT infrastructure and the improper functioning of IT tools such as the Beneficiary and Project Management modules and the Online Language Support (OLS), which increases the workload of all those involved in the programme’s implementation, discourages the participation of newcomers and undermines the programme’s ambition to widen participation; notes that this inhibits optimal implementation, risks flawed and incomplete programme documentation and monitoring, and jeopardises evidence-based development in the future and notes further that similar issues exist with IT tools in other EU-funded programmes, including the European Solidarity Corps;

Removed:34. Calls for an improvement in the quality of evaluations of operating grants;

Added:50. Emphasises that issues with the IT infrastructure similar to those experienced in the current programme period are unacceptable; calls on the Commission to stabilise the existing IT-tools and not change them with each new programming period, and expects the IT infrastructure of the next Erasmus+ generation to be fully operational from day one, particularly with regard to the Beneficiary Module;

Added:51. Calls for thorough trials and consultations with NAs and end users before rolling out additional features or new IT tools, and for compliance with the EU Web Accessibility Directive to be ensured;

Added:52. Calls on the Commission to correct the limited transparency and usability of the results section ‘Projects funded under this topic’ in the portal for funding and tender opportunities, so that data can be downloaded by stakeholders to analyse the characteristics of successful and rejected projects in terms of organisation, budget amounts, lead country of project or project type;

Added:53. Requests that the Commission consider charging for digital tools and online activities to support learning separately, particularly when they are used to prepare for an activity, in order to avoid excessively high advance payments;

Added:54. Insists that the simplification of application procedures and requirements and the improvement of the guidelines, particularly for individuals, must remain a high priority, as they are barriers to the programme; points out that inadequacies often affect young, first-time participants the most;

Added:55. Requests proportionate registration, application and reporting processes in terms of the length of documents and a reduction in administrative and bureaucratic requirements, particularly for smaller grants;

Added:56. Points out that proposal forms need to be accompanied by clear rules and guidance in understandable language; calls on the NAs to further improve feedback to applicants;

Added:57. Calls on the Commission to provide continuous training to EACEA project officers and NAs’ staff and clear communication about the interpretation of Erasmus+ initiatives;

Added:58. Recalls that the early, transparent and reliable communication of deadlines and steps is the basis for fair and equal access to the programme;

Added:59. Calls on the NAs to organise information sessions on reporting requirements at the beginning of the projects; suggests a comprehensive revision of reporting and accounting so that the same information is not requested repeatedly;

Added:60. Calls on the NAs to empower their inclusion officers to implement the plans for inclusion and diversity;

Added:61. Calls on the Commission to strengthen its work with stakeholders on European ‘inclusion targets’ for the programme and to make available data on projects which include participants with fewer opportunities;

Removed:44. Urges the Commission to step up efforts on the programme’s digital transformation, in particular on achieving an ‘Erasmus Without Paper’ and establishing the ‘European Student Card’, following the initial planning;

Added:65. Asks for a more frequent and regular review and adjustments to the inflation rate index of grants and unit costs in order to align them with the cost of living, inflation and the needs of beneficiaries;

Removed:45. Asks the Commission to assess options for a more integrated approach towards youth activities across EU programmes;

Added:66. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to help address the problems of accommodation for Erasmus+ mobility students;

Removed:46. Calls on the Commission to provide for necessary programme flexibility in the design of the next generation of Erasmus+, while ensuring uniformity and proper scrutiny of the programme, including by Parliament;

Added:67. Calls on the Commission to evaluate the alliances’ readiness for autonomy together with them before the end of their funding period, in order to determine whether they need some form of targeted support to achieve autonomy within a reasonable time frame, as well as for the stabilisation and deepening of alliances through project-related future funding;

Added:68. Calls on the Commission to discuss with the co-legislators, as early as possible, the sustainable continuation of the European Universities Alliances as a flagship initiative; stresses that such a future-oriented vision must make these alliances the spearhead of European higher education; recalls that the European University Alliances should serve as models and that the Commission and the Member States should create framework conditions which are fully interlinked to the European Higher Education Area and the European Education Area as well as a legal status for European Universities Alliances;

Added:69. Calls on the Commission to use the programme’s tools to encourage accommodations that would open up sectors where women are underrepresented such as IT, science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics, entrepreneurship and VET, and subsequently to facilitate women’s integration into these segments of the labour market; suggests that the Commission foster gender balance in the programme;

Added:70. Stresses that by improving co-creation, Erasmus+ can support education to respond to new societal needs with methodologies that foster the development of an adapted set of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, and draws attention particularly to the programme’s contribution to the transition towards digital education;

Added:71. Calls for the wider use of and clearer rules for virtual and blended learning and the building of infrastructure for digitalised and remote learning opportunities, extending them to other educational sectors in order to facilitate smoother and more flexible transitions and to facilitate inclusion;

Added:72. Suggests the development of synergies between Erasmus+ and other multiannual financial framework (MFF) programmes to fund improvements in access to educational tools for areas and communities where connectivity or access to technologies are low, similarly to what is being tested in a preparatory action;

Added:73. Asks for eTwinning and the European School gateway to be integrated fully and seamlessly into Erasmus+ and to be better promoted among teachers and school staff;

Added:74. Asks the Commission and the Member States to promote the European dimension in teachers’ professional development and to encourage mobility among them; asks for provisions to be made to substitute teachers or to compensate them for time spent on Erasmus+ projects;

Added:75. Suggests that the ‘Jean Monnet for Schools’ action become decentralised so that it is managed by the NAs in order to simplify access for schools;

Added:76. Underlines the need to allocate more funding to opportunities aimed at primary schools and pupils, given the very high level of demand in most programme countries;

Added:77. Calls on the Commission to resolve the issues caused by the quantitative limitation implicit in institutional accreditation, given the programme’s ambition to be inclusive, particularly with regard to schools, given their sheer number across the EU;

Added:78. Calls on the Commission to examine how synergies between Erasmus+, other MFF programmes and the EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life (2021-2030) can be established and promoted so that secondary schools have better access to the network of Holocaust memorial sites and their pupils are given the opportunity to visit at least one of these sites in Europe during their school careers;

Added:79. Requests that the Commission issue a call for projects to enable secondary school students to visit a site connected with the atrocities committed by totalitarian regimes in Europe;

Added:80. Asks the Commission to issue calls for proposals in Erasmus+ to support schools in the fight against all forms of bullying and discrimination, and to enhance school psychological counselling;

Added:81. Calls on the Commission to foster the role of Erasmus+ in increasing a sense of belonging, civic engagement, a better understanding of the Union and support for European values, and to turn the programme into a true promoter of European democracy;

Added:82. Asks the Commission to introduce the EU citizenship education component with curricular and extracurricular activities, connected to learning mobility, which are certified by micro-credentials, develop active citizenship and embrace non-discrimination;

Added:83. Welcomes the action’s learning component and asks the Commission to assess its outcomes with a view to strengthening the educational dimension by establishing stronger synergies between learning mobility and DiscoverEU;

Added:84. Calls for the development of DiscoverEU in order to promote a more inclusive action;

Added:85. Suggests considering ticket quotas for group trips, as insisting too rigidly that all peers in a group must be aged exactly 18 to qualify as a DiscoverEU group can be counterproductive;

Added:86. Asks the Commission to assess options for a more integrated approach towards youth activities across EU programmes, learning from the experience of the European Year of Youth 2022 and in consultation with youth stakeholders on the design, implementation and evaluation of grants and instruments in the field of youth;

Added:87. Calls on the Commission to strengthen the programme’s alignment with the EU Youth Strategy, the 11 youth goals and the outcomes of the EU Youth Dialogue; calls for a better definition of objectives and roles for projects in Key Action 2 in the field of youth in a way that reinforces youth work, the professional development of youth workers and non-formal education;

Added:88. Calls on the EACEA and the NAs to create a communications strategy that reaches out to new youth organisations, particularly those led by or working with youth with fewer opportunities, and to provide them with additional support in writing project proposals and capacity building using Support, Advanced Learning and Training Opportunities for Youth (SALTO);

Added:89. Recalls the need for sufficient funds for small partnerships in all sectors of the programme to facilitate entry by small organisations and inexperienced persons, and to offer them real prospects for development;

Added:90. Insists that the programme is key to establishing the European Education Area and asks for greater synergies with the European Solidarity Corps programme; urges the Commission and the Member States to initiate an open method of coordination on the mutual recognition of competences acquired during periods of European mobility or civic engagement;

Added:91. Suggests that the programme offer greater support to measures such as individual learning accounts and micro-credentials which improve the permeability of educational systems;

Added:92. Stresses the importance of promoting mobility among VET students, among other reasons in order to reach young people with fewer opportunities; calls on the Member States to develop synergies between Erasmus+ and other funding programmes to facilitate learning mobility among VET learners and low-skilled workers and to improve territorial and regional cooperation;

Added:93. Urges the development of a dedicated online tool tailored to the needs of teachers, instructors and learners in initial and continuing VET, as the current tools have proven insufficient;

Added:94. Calls on the Commission to discuss with the co-legislators, as early as possible, its vision on the sustainable continuation of the Centres of Vocational Excellence as a flagship initiative;

Added:95. Calls for a holistic educational approach within the Centres of Vocational Excellence and calls on the Member States to make these centres the driving force behind the development of joint European VET qualifications, curricula and diplomas;

Added:96. Calls on the Commission to study the status of VET learners who are on mobility; insists that the organisations hosting apprenticeships be required to sign a quality charter in line with the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education and calls for better monitoring of the working conditions and for adequate remuneration for the individuals participating in Erasmus+ apprenticeships;

Added:97. Suggests that the programme continue to support projects that promote a wide variety of skills, including artisanal crafts, in order to preserve them;

Added:98. Calls on the Commission to reconsider its adult learning strategy in collaboration with NAs and relevant stakeholders, given the target of 60 % of adults participating in adult learning and education by 2030;

Added:99. Calls on the Commission to increase the visibility of the support available for adult learning and education activities; suggests that unspent funds are not immediately siphoned away to other actions but used for cooperation in adult education and to ease the uptake of mobility among adult learners with fewer opportunities through awareness campaigns, easy-to-fill-in applications and greater synergies with the European Social Fund Plus across Member States;

Added:100. Calls on the Commission to improve communication on and the promotion of sport funding in Erasmus+; calls for a better representation of sport associations in the awarded projects, as non-sport organisations such as non-governmental organisations and consultancies are often over-represented as beneficiaries;

Added:101. Stresses that the programme’s capacity to provide support in crisis situations is necessarily very limited and the Commission should additionally facilitate cooperation between Member States to address common challenges comprehensively, safeguarding the programme from being overloaded;

Added:102. Calls on the Commission and the NAs to endeavour to ensure that prospective participants, who are third country nationals, residing lawfully in the EU, do not face difficulties during the application process, making the programme truly inclusive;

Added:103. Points out that cooperation with non-associated third countries can be very difficult, and calls on the Commission to systematically monitor, improve and strengthen the international dimension of the programme;

Added:104. Asks that closer attention be paid to issues concerning the international dimension of the programme such as data protection rules for non-EU countries, the impact of geopolitical issues and visa-related issues;

Added:105. Calls on the Commission to provide for the necessary programme flexibility in the design of the next generation of Erasmus+, while ensuring uniformity and proper scrutiny of the programme, including by Parliament;

Added:106. Insists that NAs, beneficiaries and other stakeholders, including young people, and Parliament are actively involved in a continual, dialogue-based process to optimise the current and the next generation of Erasmus+; suggests that the Commission explore how AI tools can be used to aid with the evaluation of the programme and provide clearer insights into needs and possible developments without replacing human decision-making;

Removed:50. Emphasises that issues with the IT infrastructure similar to those experienced in the current programme period are unacceptable, and expects the IT infrastructure of the next Erasmus+ generation to be fully operational from day one;

Added:110. Stresses the need to accelerate synergies between the European Education Area, the Digital Education Action Plan and the European Skills Agenda in shaping a digital education policy;

Added:111. Requests the Commission, the EACEA and NAs to analyse and systematically implement concrete measures that break down existing silos in the programme structure in order to increase synergies between different educational areas and actors so as to improve permeability and rebalance the programme, while maintaining the distinctions that are necessary for effective political scrutiny;

Added:112. Calls for centralised and decentralised actions to be better linked and for the use of flexible funding instruments such as micro-grants to be enhanced; suggests that given the positive experiences gained with micro-grants during the pandemic, they should be maintained in a targeted way;

Added:113. Calls on the Commission to conduct proper piloting and testing when introducing new administrative measures such as top-ups and lump sums to avoid creating additional administrative barriers to beneficiaries;

Added:114. Calls for operating grants to support the development of strategic sectors that often rely on volunteers and for structured and regular cooperation between stakeholders and beneficiary representative organisations;

Added:115. Calls for an improvement in the quality of evaluations of operating grants;

Added:116. Encourages stronger incentives and better guidance so that the Seal of Excellence label will start having a tangible positive impact on Erasmus+;

Added:117. Calls on the Commission to consistently follow up on any indications that an accredited beneficiary does not respect European values, with the aim of ensuring confidence in the established accreditation mechanism and to take appropriate action as a result, which must lead to expulsion if the allegations are substantiated and cannot be immediately and permanently remedied; points to the need for stricter monitoring in the next programing period;

Added:118. Calls on the Commission to take better account of fraud, such as letterbox companies or inclusion top-ups that do not actually reach groups with fewer opportunities, and to make the actions taken to counter such abuses more transparent;